Ugh... I finally finished this chapter... It took me the longest time trying to figure out how to end the chapter... Anyways, so sorry for the delay! Hope you enjoy! Yes, 17 is my favorite number. :D
Chapter 17 -- My Favorite Number!
The host club gathered in the Twilight Town base the next morning, decked out in their gangsta clothing from the episode with the Poker Club. Hayner just stared at them in wonder.
"You guys look like you crawled out of the ghetto. What's with the get-up?"
"You're a gangsta, right? So, we're dressed up like gangstas to fit in!" Axel explained.
"So, I just go up to a random, unassuming person and whisper, 'Hey, want some coke?'" Demyx asked.
"NO!" Hayner shouted. "I'm not in a drug gang! What kind of person do you think I am?"
"What other kind of gang is there?" Axel asked.
The skater boy sighed. "Whatever. Just don't get in the way, okay?"
"Right!" Axel nodded. "We'll just chill in da hood!"
He's an idiot... Roxas thought as he adjusted his over-sized baseball hat.
Hayner led them to a small alleyway, up to an open gate.
"This is the usual spot," he explained. "Olette and Pence are probably already inside. So, what exactly are you guys going to do?"
"Umm..." Everyone turned to Demyx.
"What? Axel's the leader! He should have come up with a plan!"
"It was your idea, you hippie!" Axel yelled.
"So? I just started the fire. Now you have to keep it going!"
"What the heck is that about?" Hayner muttered to Roxas.
"He's an idiot, that's what," the blonde responded.
Xaldin finally raised his hand. "One of us should go in with the skater boy, while the rest of us wait out here and take notes."
"You mean eavesdrop?" Marluxia asked.
"Yes."
"Xaldy-chan! You're a genius!" Axel exclaimed.
Xaldin glared at him. "Don't ever call me 'Xaldy-chan' again, Number VIII."
"O-okay..." Axel gulped.
"So who's going in with the skater boy?" Marluxia asked.
Slowly, all heads turned toward Roxas.
"I vote for my daughter," exclaimed Axel. "Who agrees?"
"Perfect choice!"
"He's the right age. It makes logical sense."
"Have fun with the druggies, Roxy-chan!"
Xaldin grunted.
"All right, everyone agrees!" Axel pointed to Roxas. "Go, Roxy-chan! The fate of the skater boy's love life rests in your hands!"
Roxas sighed. "Fine..."
Hayner and Roxas then walked inside the gate as the rest of the host club cheered them on.
Roxas soon found himself in a sort of clubhouse room. There was a dart board hanging on one wall, a few crates, and a beat-up sofa. Olette and a fat kid with spiky black hair were sitting on the sofa.
"Oh, Hayner! You've brought a friend!" the fat boy exclaimed.
"Yeah, Pence, this is Roxas. He's from the host club."
"Oh, that place where Olette always goes after school? What exactly is it?"
Olette perked up. "It's this amazing place with all these dreamy guys who talk to you and serve you tea!"
Pence stared at her. "Why would anyone want to do that?"
Good question, Roxas thought.
"You wouldn't understand, Pence. It's a girl thing." Then Olette smiled. "I never thought I'd see you here, Roxas-kun! You and Hayner must have become really good friends with all the host club training!"
"Uh, yeah! Good friends!" Roxas replied. "So, Olette, what kind of things do you guys do in this gang?"
Olette laughed. "We just hang out. And deal with the Disciplinary Gang..."
"The Disciplinary Gang?"
"This big tough guy named Seifer who thinks he owns the town. He's always causing more trouble than helping people."
Roxas sighed. "Yeah, I know Seifer..." Memories of his torment while dressing as a girl still haunted him.
Suddenly, Olette stood up. "Let's go get ice cream!" she exclaimed.
"Yay, ice cream!" Pence shouted.
I don't think he should have anymore ice cream... Roxas thought as he stared at Pence.
"Okay, let's go!" Hayner said.
Roxas shoved his head out of the door to warn the host club that they were ready to come out. However, he soon noticed that Marluxia was the only one there.
"Marly? What are you doing? Where's everyone else?" Roxas whispered.
"I don't know... I just realized they were gone, actually." Marluxia grinned. "Look at those black-eyed susans on the windowsill of that house. Aren't they pretty?"
"Whatever..." Roxas stepped out, followed by Hayner, Olette, and Pence.
"Hey, isn't that the flower guy from the host club?" Olette whispered to Roxas.
"I... uhh... I don't know. Let's get ice cream!" Roxas ran off with Hayner. Pence and Olette looked at each other in confusion and then ran after them.
As Hayner and Roxas were on their way to the ice cream stand, Roxas started whispering advice to the Skater Boy.
"Offer to buy her ice cream," Roxas suggested. "Girls like that stuff."
"Okay. Then what?"
"Uh, then I'll distract Pence so that you can go sit with her for a while on the clock tower."
"WHAT?!" Hayner's face turned crimson.
"What's 'what?'" Olette asked from behind.
"Ah, n-nothing!" he stammered. "Roxas said something dirty."
"Oh, yeah right! Roxas is a perfect gentleman!" she giggled.
They approached the ice cream stand, and Olette pulled out her wallet.
"Oh, uh... Olette! I'll pay for it!" Hayner shouted.
Olette looked at him in confusion. "Really? I thought you were broke?"
Hayner gulped and pulled out his wallet. Nothing.
"Here..." Roxas snuck some munny into his pocket.
"Oh, haha, I got some!" Hayner laughed nervously and pulled out the munny.
"Okay... thanks, Hayner! I want sea-salt ice cream!"
After Pence bought his ice cream, Roxas waited for Hayner and Olette went off before stopping the fat kid.
"Hey, Pence, right?"
"Yeah. What is it?" Pence asked.
"I uh... I want to show you something real quick!"
"What about Hayner and Olette?"
"Just let them go on ahead. It won't take long."
Roxas pushed Pence toward the direction of the Sandlot, while Hayner and Olette continued on to the clock tower. However, when Roxas and Pence reached the Sandlot, a surprising scene awaited them. Axel, Xaldin, Demyx, and Zexion were all carrying Struggle whackers, while Seifer and Rai were standing across from them, also with Struggle whackers.
"Okay, fools, I'll teach you what happens when you mess with the Disciplinary Gang!" Seifer shouted with a smirk.
"Yeah, you guys are going down, you know?" Rai added.
"Hey! All we did was laugh at your belly shirt!" Axel protested. "Besides, you should be nice to us! We helped you get with--"
Zexion clapped his hand over Axel's mouth. "Idiot, we're undercover, remember?" he whispered.
"Oh. Haha." Axel pointed his Struggle whacker at Seifer. "Fine! We'll all take you on! There's four of us and only two of you!"
"Who are they?" Pence whispered. "They look funny."
"They're idiots," Roxas answered. "All four of them."
"Let the Struggle match begin!" Seifer shouted.
Roxas found it almost amusing to see grown men hitting each other with blue foam bats. This is like something that a little kid would do at a birthday party or something. You call this a sport?
Demyx was hesitant to attack anyone. Rai targeted him right away and began hitting him with the Struggle whacker.
"Owie! This isn't any fun! Axel, I wanna quit!" the Melodious Nocturne whined.
"Shut up and hit him, Demmy-chan!"
Zexion merely watched with amusement. Occasionally he would put an illusion in the way to confuse Seifer, but he didn't actually fight.
Xaldin rescued Demyx from the brutal attack by Rai, hitting Rai so hard that he fell on the ground, flat on his back.
"Man, you're dangerous, you know?"
This left Axel against Seifer. Both were fighting pretty well until they got exhausted. The others had stopped fighting and were having more fun watching the main battle going on.
"Hey, Xaldin! Help me out!" Axel panted.
"No. This is more fun," replied the Whirlwind Lancer.
Zexion glanced over at the clock tower. "It's getting late," he muttered. "We should head back soon." Then he noticed that Hayner and Olette had reached the clock tower. "Oh, Number XIII, it seems you were successful."
Roxas looked at the tower and saw that Hayner and Olette were sitting on the ledge. "I wonder how everything is going..."
Zexion turned to Roxas and whispered, "Let's hurry everything up. This fight is boring to watch, anyway."
"Uh, okay."
He snuck off with Zexion, leaving Pence with the rest of the host club and the epic battle. They slowly made their way over to the base of the tower, but still out of the sight of Hayner and Olette. Marluxia had ended up there as well, since the nearby apartment had some lovely window gardens.
"Number XI, I think you can help us with something," Zexion mumbled to him.
"Oh, Zexy-kun! Roxy-kun! I was wondering where everyone went!" Marluxia seemed a bit dazed.
Zexion gave a curious grin. "We are going to create the right mood so that Hayner will confess his feelings for Olette."
Roxas' eyes widened. "Zexion, are you all right? You're starting to sound like Axel!"
"I wouldn't bother with this normally, except that I would like to get back to the Castle before dinnertime."
"Oh." Roxas sighed. Of course he does.
Zexion turned to Marluxia. I want you to send some flower petals through the air toward them."
"Right-o!" Marluxia waved his hand, and instantly a bunch of pink petals appeared on the wind, slowly fluttering toward Hayner and Olette.
Olette looked up from her ice cream as she noticed the petals. "Where did these come from?"
"I don't know," Hayner replied. "There aren't any trees around here, are there?"
"Excellent," Zexion whispered. "Now for a little trick of my own." He waved his hand to make the sunset brighter and more colorful. Then he blew on his hand to make little glowy balls appear. They surrounded the couple on the clock tower.
"Wow, this is pretty!" Olette exclaimed. "They're like fireflies!"
"Y-yeah..." Hayner finally glanced down and saw Roxas, Zexion, and Marluxia waving at him to hurry up. "You guys suck," he mouthed at them. Then he looked over at Olette.
"Are you all right, Hayner? You look nervous," she told him.
"Uh, yeah. Uh, Olette, I want to tell you something."
"What?"
Hayner gulped. "Don't laugh."
Olette giggled. "I won't. What is it?"
"I..." He stood up. "I like you a lot."
"Oh. I like you, too, Hayner! I mean, we've been friends forever!"
"Ugh, tell her you love her, you idiot," Zexion muttered.
Hayner took a deep breath and quickly burst out, "I-love-you-a-lot-like-more-than-a-friend-and-I-don't-care-if-you-still-want-to-go-to-the-host-club-but-I-just-want-to-tell-you-that-I'm-madly-in-love-with-you-will-you-go-out-with-me?" He panted after having spouted that long run-on sentence and waited for her response.
"Um..." She blushed a little. "Wow, Hayner, I had no idea you felt that way about me." Then she grinned. "I think I'm beginning to love you, too. I guess... Sure, I'll go out with you, Hayner!"
"Really?" Hayner gave a big sigh. Then they both laughed and hugged each other.
"Thank goodness that's finally overwith," Zexion grumbled.
"That was the stupidest confession of love I've ever seen," Roxas whispered. "If I was a girl I would have just walked away."
Marluxia laughed. "Hah! So you do think like a girl sometimes, Roxy-chan?"
"What? I didn't mean that!"
"Roxy-chan's a girl! Roxy-chan's a girly-girl!" the flower boy chanted.
"Aw, we missed it?" Roxas turned to see Axel, Xaldin, and Demyx approaching them.
"What took you so long?"
"Uh, well..." Axel smiled. "Demmy-chan is an unstoppable beast!"
Demyx giggled. "I guess I just got bored and decided to step in."
"It was the ice cream we had earlier, I believe," Xaldin explained. "The sugar finally kicked in, allowing Demyx to beat up Seifer with little difficulty."
"What about the fat kid?" Zexion asked.
"Uh... We just kinda left him there..." Axel explained.
"He's probably dead right now," muttered Xaldin.
"Let's go home," Roxas suggested. "This has been such a long, crazy day."
"Yay, home! Xaldin, make me a cake!" Demyx exclaimed.
The host club opened up their dark portals and transported back to the World That Never Was, satisfied that once again they had succeeded in getting another young couple together...
Zexion: Wait, this isn't supposed to be the point of the club. We're trying to collect hearts.
Axel: Um... This is more fun! We can collect hearts later! For now let's enjoy Xaldin's lovely cake!
Zexion:...Idiot.